5/5/13: A road trip project for my big trip to Florida for my swearing in ceremony (into the Florida Bar). Even though my “Sheldon” Bobble Sheep is yet to have any feet, I was adamant about starting this project for some mindless knitting in the long car ride from NY to FL. My husband and I are hoping on our first child in the next few years, so he encouraged me to start a baby blanket.

This is my first project using the “flicking” technique. I am an English knitter, so I decided in an effort to pick up speed and maintain contact with the right needle, I would try verypink.com ‘s technique of pivoting the right needle to hook the working yarn. While I have to admit it felt a bit awkward in the beginning, I am really loving the feeling now. It will take time to develop a consistent position for the working yarn in my right index finger. This will be key to maintaining a consistent tension throughout the work.

I’m using my Knitter’s Pride circular needles, size 8. I love that I can keep switching the length of the cable to accommodate the growing width of this project. I experienced my first splinter today. Yuck! Luckily my husband cut me a small piece of sandpaper to keep in my knitting tool pouch to quickly remedy this bamboo ailment.

5/16/13: Webs (yarn.com) sent replacement needles just in time. I suffered 2 painful splinters on my road trip while trying to use the damaged ones. Luckily, when I got home my needles had already arrived! No charge! Great customer service!

I’m struggling with the decreasing lace panels “C”s. I am not sure but it creates a different 3 hole pattern in the panel. Maybe it’s intentional. I’m not sure. My first and third rows of holes were aligned on all the “A” lace panels during the increase.

I have used 2 skeins so far, so I am happy that I estimated needing 4. The plan was to have at least 1 skein leftover for a baby accessory to match – a tiny hat perhaps!

It has been exciting to share this project with my mom, nana and sister on my road trip home to FL. It is special because my husband and I have baby plans on the horizon. it’s really exciting to start allowing myself to dream about this goal in my life. I’ve held off for a long time while we trudged through college, grad school, then law school. I want to work for a few years before I attempt the mom title, but at least this project is a physical representation of my commitment to achieve this lifelong goal.